A Conversation
by Hide Shinyama
Summary: Ranma is tired of all the chaos in Nerima. Feeling depressed, he uses the Hiryu Shoten Ha and ends up parachuting into another city. There he meets somebody who listens to his problems. One-shot story.


Ranma ½ x Date a Live

**Hello, everyone. I'm Hide Shinyama here to present a one-shot fanfic.**

**Now, my reasons for creating this story are simple.**

**I want to figure out if it is possible for me to write and upload stories on via a smartphone (if you can see it means it must work).**

**Also, while I'm at it, I might as well put forward this short story that I have.**

**This particular crossover fanfic isn't anything special, but it is a story worth putting out.**

**Here Shido and Ranma will encounter each other and hold a conversation. The topic?**

**Well, you'll see.**

**Note: Even though, I kind of enjoyed Ranma ½ I haven't read all of it. I'm setting this story after the failed wedding, even though I know only the general idea.**

**Anyway, please enjoy...**

A Conversation

It was a lovely afternoon just past three o'clock and quite a normal day for Nerima.

Normally, all the townsfolk would be minding their own business.

Ranma practicing martial arts with his father, going to school and getting into all kinds of fights, trouble and misunderstandings.

Shampoo glomping him, getting Ranma all flustered and annoyed.

Akane getting furious and beating Ranma with a hammer.

Ryoga blaming Ranma for all his problems and then try to kill him.

Mousse trying to kill Ranma so that he can win Shampoos heart.

Tatewaki trying to do the same to have Akane and paradoxically Ranma himself in his female form.

Kodachi trying to kill Female Ranma in an attempt to get the male Ranma (also paradoxically).

Genma Saotome scolding Ranma, telling him to be a man among men, while being a complete hypocrite and coward.

Soun acting even more pathetically than Genma all the time.

Nabiki trying to take advantage of the chaos for her own benefit.

Kasumi acting nice and sweet all the time being rather oblivious to much of the chaos happening.

Dr. Tofu being love-struck when Kasumi comes by.

Happosai stealing panties throughout town and groping women.

Cologne telling Ranma to marry Shampoo all the time.

Ukyo trying to get into the game of lover's spat as well using her childhood friend as an edge.

His mother demanding he be a man among men.

All whom are either chasing Ranma literally or bearing down on him figuratively.

The same stress over and over again. It was as if the entire universe was out to get him and make him more and more miserable. How he managed to remain sane, he did not know.

What he did know... Was that he could no longer bear it.

It felt strange, but for the past few days he truly felt like he could no longer do it.

Just about everyone and everything in Nerima was trying to kill him or restrict his freedom. He felt like a bird in a cage. Sure, he could live, but what good was it was a life of misery.

What was even worse was that nobody wanted to listen to him.

Akane focused too much on her concerns and would beat at the slightest offense. Her being indecisive about her feelings about him made it worse.

The other girls, though more decisive with their feelings, didn't help him much either.

Ukyo would demand Ranma to be the same loveable childhood friend that she knew a long time ago, whilst also engaging in her dreams to run an Okonomiyaki business.

Shampoo would pressure Ranma into making him part of her tribe along with her grandmother – even with magical potions!

Kodachi would send chills up his spine with her insane laughter. Her schemes and poisons just made her even more dangerous in his eyes.

And that's not to mention the other people but right now he did not have time to think about them.

For now, he needed to make his getaway. Ranma tasted to a certain place where he knew he could lose his pursuers...

* * *

Ten minutes later...

"Whew... Glad this bridge always helps me. Never let's me down..." an exhausted Ranma said, as he took a rest under a bridge to hide from the usual mob coming after him day by day.

"I wonder if the coast is clear..." Ranma said. He peeked out of his hiding place and sure enough. The coast was clear.

Ranma climbed up from under the bridge and unto it, taking with him what seemed to be a big mass of fabric under his arm. He sighed in relief.

But his relief disappeared as soon as it came, being replaced by the feelings of emptiness and depression.

The thoughts he has been having for the past few days now haven't disappeared.

Ranma didn't know what to do with himself. Which is why he took a stroll down the street, going nowhere in particular.

Then he decided to run a little faster. Then jump up a dumpster near the road, then a fence and then a building. By now, he was leaping from roof to roof, the wind breeding in his pig-tailed hair.

Eventually, after running for some 150 meters, he leapt up to higher buildings and thus higher into the skyline.

Ranma was running now, since the roofs were becoming wider and longer. He didn't need to worry about people being disturbed by the sound of his footsteps now.

Because of the density of Nerima and Metropolitan Tokyo, it was easy for him to run miles upon miles without touching the ground. Granted, he had to be careful with higher buildings, since there are no fences or metal railings that he could use (unlike lower houses).

Moreover, there were buildings whose distances between each other seemed impossible to cross over just by jumping.

For Ranma, however, this was fairly easy.

"Hiryu... Shoten... HA!" Ranma yelled, as he used that tornado-creating move and let it carry him into the air.

Flying into the air, he normally would have landed in a bloody mess on the ground, had he not readied...

...the wide fabric that acted as a makeshift parachute. He gripped all four corners with both of his hands.

Ranma had long practiced this technique in secret, having perfected it with every new try.

Nobody knew about it.

Every time, Ranma would aim at greater heights and travel at greater distances, enjoying the view, the wind blowing In his hair and it was a great relief to relieve his stress, despite how exhausting it was to use the Hiryu Shoten Ha.

What makes this flight different was that this time, Ranma flew further from Nerima. Who knows how far now...

Ranma had never said this out loud – even to himself – but deep in his heart, he always had a desire to leave Nerima.

Yes, leave Nerima and all its troubles behind, whether it be his demanding fiancées , his murderous love rivals, his overbearing parents and adults in his life... He even felt the need just to get away from Kasumi and her seemingly ever-happy look on her face. It just weirded him out!

However, he would always end up going back, since he had nowhere to live. He may have lived most of his life on the road, but living in a house with free food and a bed to sleep was still better for him than without.

But with all the stress and troubles he had to deal with every day... Was it really worth it?

Ranma eventually landed on the ground, as gently as anybody parachuting to the ground would.

As he looked around, he saw the ocean lying just before him. Behind him were high-rise buildings that seemed quite modern.

This didn't look like any place near Nerima that he knew.

Sigh... It was going to be a long walk home. Granted, Ranma could have just used the Hiryu Shoten Ha and the parachute to return, but he didn't want anybody to know about his hobby. Besides, any excuse that could keep him from being back in Nerima for a while would be welcome.

And so Ranma gathered up the parachute and bundled it under his arm.

Just as he was starting his journey home...

"Wow, were you parachuting just now?"

Ranma whipped his head around in surprise and saw a blue-haired guy about his age, with a look of astonishment on his face.

Ranma was taken off guard. Oh, crap! Somebody saw him! This wasn't good! He looked for a good cover story, but only found himself stuttering.

"I, uh... Hahaha... Th-that... That was..." Ranma tried to form a coherent sentence but it was no use.

"Say, why are you holding the parachute with your hands? Where's the bag for it? And... where are the strings to the chute?" the blue-haired boy asked curiously.

Being bombarded with questions with no convincing answer other than the truth, Ranma decided to spill it.

"Ha... fine. I'll tell ya... But not a word to anyone else. OK?" Ranma told the blue-haired boy.

The boy nodded and listened as Ranma revealed that he was a martial artist and could use a technique called the Hiryu Shoten Ha. He revealed its proprietaries and how he could use it to parachute to the ground at great distances.

The bluenette was wide-eyed as he heard Ranma's explanation. It sounded... out of this world and that was saying a lot, given that he himself had seen quite a lot of supernatural occurrences himself.

"That was so cool! I wished I could be a martial artist like you!" the blue-haired boy complimented.

Ranma sighed and his face fell upon hearing this. "Wanna be like me? I don't think you would want that..."

The blue-haired boy noticed this. "Huh? Why not?"

"Well... How do I put it? My pop always told me 'A martial artist's life is always fraught with peril. And true enough, I always end up going through a lot of crap," Ranma explained.

"Really? Like what?" the boy asked.

It was then that Ranma sat down. This was going to be a long explanation.

He cleared his throat and spoke.

"First of all, my pop is completely irresponsible and puts me through all kinds of difficult experiences, like living on the road for many years, getting myself cursed because of a water curse, taking the fall for his stupid actions, getting thrown in a... brrr... pit full of starving cats to learn a dangerous technique, getting me engaged to dozens of girls just so that he can fill his fat belly and worst of all: Demanding that I live according to the honour of a martial artist, while himself doing nothing of the sort!"

"Oh... I see..." The boy said with an understanding bod.

"But that's not all. He then engages me to another girl just so he can unite his and his pathetic friend's family. That girl is nothing but a violent tomboy who just jumps to conclusions at the slightest misunderstandings and whacks me with a hammer!" Ranma rambled on.

"Oh... It's that bad?" the boy asked.

"No, it gets even worse. Then I get all these other girls trying to marry me – all of them are martial artists by the way. And they all fight me and each other and cause chaos and pandemonium. They don't care about me or my feelings and yet I still get to be the whipping boy for not being as they want me to be!" Ranma was on a roll with his monologue, his feeling bubbling to the surface.

"Wow... must be hard..." was all what the boy could say, since Ranma continued uninterrupted.

"And to top it all off, all their jealous lovers come in and try to kill me just so that they can get at least one of the girls currently chasing me. Heck, one guy is even trying to kill me just so that he can get my female self!"

"Female... self?" the boy questioned.

"Yes, you heard right. That's my curse. Whenever cold water hits me I become a girl and back to a boy with warm water," Ranma explained.

"I see..." The blue-haired boy said.

"That, too, is a pain in my butt. And if that wasn't enough, the adults don't make it easier for me. They demand that I do this, do that... demand that I do this or commit Seppuku like my Mom or be a breeding stock for her tribe like that old mummy!" Ranma told the boy further with frustration in his voice.

"Sounds... pretty hard. I mean, I wouldn't be able to endure half of it, come to think of it..." The boy said with a slight shudder, as he gestured Ranma to on.

Surprisingly, Ranma's frustration left him and was instead replaced by a sense of sadness and depression.

"And the worst part of it all... Is that no matter how hard I try to solve the problems at hand. Nothing changes... I help people, fight enemies, fight the folks I mentioned earlier, try to talk it out... And yet... Nothing changes... I had this wedding ceremony not too long ago with that tomboy girl, ya see... And all the problems I mentioned earlier just came crashing down at that moment... And since then, what has changed? Nothing! Nobody learned anything from it. It's back to the same old chaos with me being the loser all over again. It is always me... I'm always the whipping boy. It doesn't matter what I think or feel... Which is why I have been gliding around these past days just to get away from the chaos of Nerima. I can't even stand the sight of the more normal people who just take it in as if it was no big deal. I just..."

That was when Ranma looked down tiredly, while on the bench.

"...I... I can't take it anymore... I just don't know what to do. Sometimes, I thought about running away. Just living a life as far away from Nerima as possible. But I don't have a place to stay, ya know? And going back to the status quo... I can't accept that. Sometimes, I wonder if... if..."

Ranma couldn't bring himself to say it. He wanted to say it would have been better to kill himself, but he couldn't.

But the blue-haired boy seemed to realize what Ranma was going to say, which is why he put his hand on Ranma's shoulder.

"Look. I don't know how to deal with your problems. I'm not a martial artist, so I don't know how to deal with problems in that field. But I can tell you about my own problems and how I solved them. In a way, they weren't all too different from yours," the boy told Ranma.

Ranma looked up with a raised eyebrow at that. "Oh, yeah?" Ranma simply said.

The blue-haired boy nodded with a soft smile.

"Yup. I also had girls with magical powers trying to kill me... And kill others, too! I, too, had a role – a huge one – placed on my back for me to solve. Namely... It was to make these girls date me and fall in love with me..." The boy revealed much to Ranma's shock.

"Multiple girls falling in love with you!? That sounds crazy! The girls I know would barely even tolerate each other's presence, let alone agree on sharing their love for me together!" Ranma exclaimed with rejection to such a crazy idea.

"I know it sounds insane and even dangerous to you, but that's really what I had to do. And in the end I... solved it. And you know why?" the boy asked.

"Why?" Ranma asked.

"Because I not only dealt with their problems, but also helped them find a new purpose in life," he answered.

"Like how?" Ranma asked curiously, showing signs of interest.

"OK. One girl didn't even know who she was or where she came from. It was as if she was just recently born, knowing nothing but hostility and violence in her life. But then when I came along, I showed her that not everybody is out to kill her. That the good things in life are real and not just the bad ones. She and I fell in love with each other and today she lives a happy life together with me," the boy finished his explanation.

Ranma's face fell again. "Not like that can help me... It's not like any of the girls I know are newly born," Ranma replied sadly.

"Those weren't the only type of girls I met. One girl I met hated men and would have wanted nothing to with them other than kill them. It wasn't easy, but in the end I managed to get her to fall for me as well," the boy said, as he took a seat next to Ranma.

"Now how did ya do that? Sounds like suicide to me. Did she also have superpowers or what?" Ranma asked him.

"She did," the blue-haired teen confirmed. "But I showed her by my actions that not only weren't all men jerks, I also shattered her twisted worldview of humans in general."

"So... What did ya do to save yer skin if they attacked ya? Do ya have powers?" Ranma wanted to know.

"Well... only the powers of the girls once I sealed them. And even then I still haven't got the hang of it," the boy admitted.

"I see..." Ranma said, as he looked up in the evening sky. The sun was starting to set and the sky was getting darker. Yet, Ranma still felt unsatisfied.

"But ya know..." Ranma began. "It also sounds great and all, but I still don't know what to do with my problems..."

"Well... I..." The boy tried to say something but he just didn't know what to say.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming their direction. The two of them looked and saw a group of girls running towards them.

"Shidou!" a purple-haired girl with a red ribbon called out.

"Shidou-san! There you are!" a silver-haired girl with a bob-cut called out as well.

"Onii-chan! What are you doing out here?" a red-haired girl with twintails questioned the blue-haired boy.

"Shidou-kun! Yoshino and I are hungry!" a puppet of a rabbit on a cosplaying blue-haired girl spoke up.

"Darling!" a silver-haired girl with long hair called out.

"Who is this guy? Are you secretly gay or what?" a girl with orange hair asked.

"Seconded. Are you gay or what?" said the similar-looking girl next to the previous one with monotonous voice.

"Why are you sitting on a bench with him?" a girl with greenish hair asked as well.

"Oohhh... Is he a Chinese martial artist? I've got to draw him in my next manga..." a mature, but nerdy silver-haired girl said excitedly.

"Girls! What are you doing here?" the boy now revealed to be called Shidou asked in surprise.

"You didn't come home. We were worried about you. So, we asked around and looked for you," the purple-haired girl answered.

"Thank goodness you were OK. Once, Kotori told us about the situation, we came running," the girl with the bob-cut revealed.

"Don't worry us like that, Shidou!" the twintail girl said angrily.

"S-s-sorry. You see my friend here... umm..." Shidou suddenly realized he never asked for the martial artist's name.

"Ranma Saotome," Ranma answered.

"Yeah... had these problems back where he came from and I wanted to help him..." Shidou ended his explanation awkwardly.

The two twins narrowed their eyes in suspicion at both Shidou and Ranma.

"Really?"

"Seconded. Really?"

"Yeah, he's tellin' the truth!" Ranma answered, before looking at them all and widening his eyes in surprise.

"Holy crap! That's a lot of girls! You really had to make them fall in love with ya!?" Ranma asked Shidou.

"Uh... Yeah... It's the truth..." Shidou admitted sheepishly.

"Darling, you were talking to him about us?" the long silver-haired girl with the beautiful voice asked.

"Are you out of your mind!? Shidou, you can't just go around talking to everybody about us! It's strictly confidential!" the girl with the red twintails told Shidou angrily.

"Don't worry," Ranma tried to prevent the mood from escalating. "Yer secret is safe with me!"

"Really...?" the green-haired girl glared at Ranma threateningly.

"Really! I promise!" Ranma swore. He really got himself into a tight situation and a misunderstanding. Could he ever take a break?

It was then that something came to Ranma's mind. In fact, it has been on his mind since he met Shidou.

"Say, ya girls. Is it really true... about what he said about solving yer problems and changing ya in such a way that ya have a better outlook on life?" Ranma asked all the girls.

The girls were taken aback by his question. They looked at each other, before facing Ranma.

"Why do you want to know?" the nerdy girl asked.

"It's because of these problems I have at home. No matter what I do, I can't solve them, whether it be about girls trying to get me do what they want or get beaten up... or my parents demanding to live according to martial artist's honour... or even unreasonable rivals and enemies trying to kill me just because at least one of the girls are after me. Heck, even the normal people are totally fine with leaving things as they are that it's driving me crazy, ya know? So... What should I do? Y'all probably have some ideas, right?" Ranma rambled them with sadness, then asking them with hope.

The girls looked at each other again. Nobody spoke, but they all came to an unspoken agreement, if one were to go by their smiles and nods.

Ranma waited expectantly for an answer, as they turned back to face him.

"We... Don't know..." one of the twins answered. Ranma's face showed shock and then bitter disappointment. Even they couldn't help him with his problems?

However, they weren't finished yet.

"Your situation... We don't know it well enough to make any form of judgement about it," the more stoic twin answered.

Ranma's mood remained the same. He felt hopelessness in his entire being. Was he doomed to remain in this cycle of misery forever?

"However, there are things that always help. No matter what the situation is they always help," the nerdy girl spoke.

"One, face the person you have a problem with. Then talk to that person. You may not solve the problem, but you do get to understand each other better. I should know," the girl with the green hair said. "That's how Shidou saved me."

"Though, you have to admit. In your case, we had to make you accept yourself for who you are by having you go through our special beauty salon session," the bunny puppet suggested.

"Yeah... that, too..." The green-haired girl blushed.

"Two, take the initiative. Nothing will change if you do nothing about it. I would not have changed, had Darling here not pushed himself to save me," the long silver-haired girl said.

"And finally," the purple-haired girl spoke up. "If you can't solve a problem alone, then ask your friends. They can help you."

Ranma was surprised by the simple answer the girl had given him. Could the solutions to his problems be this easy?

The twintails girl noticed this and elaborated.

"Ranma, you have to understand. Had Shidou not have all of us, he would not have been able to win Tohka over here," she gestured to the purple-haired girl from before. "It's OK to rely on your friends every once in a while."

"Yeah, but..." Ranma argued. "I don't have any friends. None that would help me anyway..."

There was silence. They didn't know what to say.

"That's not true!" Shidou spoke up, getting everyone's attention.

"We're friends now, aren't we?" Shidou asked Ranma.

"Huh? But we just met more or less," Ranma remarked.

"So? That doesn't matter. You came to me, told me about all your problems, right? And I listened and talked to you about how I solved mine. Isn't that what friends do?" Shidou reasoned.

Ranma went silent at that. Then he chuckled, then he laughed.

"Hahaha... So that's how it is! Hahaha... All this time and I didn't realise it..." Ranma laughed self-mockingly.

"So... Are we...?" Shidou asked hopefully.

"Of course, man..." Ranma said, as he calmed down. "But tell me something. Are ya really willing to... Ya know... deal with my problems in Nerima?"

"Well, yeah!" Shidou answered.

"Even if, ya know... things get dangerous?" Ranma asked again.

"Well, yeah... Though I could need some help from Kotori here, he looked at the red-haired girl with twintails .

"Don't expect too much help, though. Ratatoskr is not a charity, you know," Kotori answered in a tsundere-like fashion.

"Ratatoskr?" Ranma asked.

"We'll... explain it some other time. Not here, someone could be watching," Shidou said as he looked around suspiciously.

"It's also getting late. We should be getting home. And someone here..." Kotori looked at Shidou forgot to make dinner..."

"Oh! That's right! Dinner! I'm hungry! Shidou let's hurry!" Tohka said earnestly.

"Come to think of it... I think I'm also hungry..." The nerdy girl said.

"Nia!?" Shidou voiced in surprise at what she said.

"I'm hungry, too..." the bunny-cosplay girl said. The other girls joined in as well.

"Oh, right. Darling, always makes good food!"

"Oh, man. I'm hungry. Right, Yuzuru?"

"Agreed. Really hungry."

"I hope it's burgers again!"

One after the other, each of them voiced their opinions.

Shidou looked like he was in despair.

"But... I don't have that much food at home..." Shidou murmured. He turned to Ranma, hoping he could help him out.

But Ranma wanted none of that.

"Sorry, but I can't help ya there! My own cooking is not too great..." Ranma said sheepishly.

"I see..." Shidou said downtrodden.

"Shidou..." Kotori said in a warning tone, causing Shidou to look at his little sister in terror.

"Yes...?" he asked nervously.

"The next time you forget to make dinner... Remember this, all right?" Kotori switched to being a cutesy little sister in an instant, as though she couldn't even hurt a fly.

"I understand..." Shidou said defeated.

"Did you hear that? He says he's going to cook for us all!"

Everybody cheered at that, while Ranma patted Shidou's shoulder comfortingly.

"Hey, Shidou. I know you've got a lot on your hands tonight, so I'll be heading back," Ranma told his new friend.

"Huh? You're leaving already?" Shidou asked surprised.

"Obviously. Nerima is my home and I bet my folks are going to be worried about me," Ranma said, as he got up from the bench.

"But... what about...?" Shidou wanted to ask.

"I know I said all these things, but I'll be fine. I dunno how I'm gonna deal with my problems back home, but... ya said I could always come to ya, right?" Ranma said with a toothy grin.

Shidou didn't say a word at first, as if hesitating. Then he gave Ranma a smile.

Ranma smiled back, as he ran towards Nerima.

"You're always welcome to come visit us, Ranma!" Shidou called out.

"Thanks! See ya soon! Hiryu... Shoten... HA!" Ranma shouted, as a huge tornado came out of nowhere and swept him up into the sky.

Everybody braced themselves because of the strong wind. Once it was over, they looked at they saw Ranma last only to see that was literally "gone with the wind".

"Shidou! How did he do that? Is he a Spirit?" Tohka asked curiously.

Shidou shook his head. "No, Tohka. He is a martial artist. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Then how did he create that tornado?" the green-haired girl asked.

"I don't know. But what I do know... is that he isn't a bad person," Shidou answered, as he looked up into the evening sky, knowing that Ranma was probably parachuting again.

* * *

With Ranma...

The evening sky was beautiful. He had never seen the sky like this before, despite the fact that he had used the Hiryu Shoten Ha so often. Maybe, it was also the fact that he had made a new friend.

Granted, his problems at home would continue and grow worse. But for the first time in his life, he felt hope...

Hope that somehow... The troubles and toils of home will come to an end.

All thanks to one blue-haired guy called Shidou...

* * *

**And that was my one-shot. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**If any of you want to continue this story, be free to do so. I would love to hear about your ideas.**

**Please read and review.**

**If you want to check out more about me, please go to my profile.**

**Until then.**

**Hide Shinyama**


End file.
